Chanakya Quotes

[R.A.W.]

A good wife is one who serves her husband in the morning like a mother does, loves him in the day like a sister does and pleases him like a prostitute in the night.
Chanakya

A man is born alone and dies alone; and he experiences the good and bad consequences of his karma alone; and he goes alone to hell or the Supreme abode.
Chanakya

A man is great by deeds, not by birth.
Chanakya

A person should not be too honest. Straight trees are cut first and honest people are screwed first.
Chanakya

As a single withered tree, if set aflame, causes a whole forest to burn, so does a rascal son destroy a whole family.
Chanakya

As long as your body is healthy and under control and death is distant, try to save your soul; when death is immanent what can you do?
Chanakya

As soon as the fear approaches near, attack and destroy it.
Chanakya

Before you start some work, always ask yourself three questions - Why am I doing it, What the results might be and Will I be successful. Only when you think deeply and find satisfactory answers to these questions, go ahead.
Chanakya

Books are as useful to a stupid person as a mirror is useful to a blind person.
Chanakya

Do not be very upright in your dealings for you would see by going to the forest that straight trees are cut down while crooked ones are left standing.
Chanakya

Do not reveal what you have thought upon doing, but by wise council keep it secret being determined to carry it into execution.
Chanakya

Education is the best friend. An educated person is respected everywhere. Education beats the beauty and the youth.
Chanakya

Even if a snake is not poisonous, it should pretend to be venomous.
Chanakya

God is not present in idols. Your feelings are your god. The soul is your temple.
Chanakya

He who is overly attached to his family members experiences fear and sorrow, for the root of all grief is attachment. Thus one should discard attachment to be happy.
Chanakya

He who lives in our mind is near though he may actually be far away; but he who is not in our heart is far though he may really be nearby.
Chanakya

If one has a good disposition, what other virtue is needed? If a man has fame, what is the value of other ornamentation?
Chanakya

It is better to die than to preserve this life by incurring disgrace. The loss of life causes but a moment's grief, but disgrace brings grief every day of one's life.
Chanakya

Never make friends with people who are above or below you in status. Such friendships will never give you any happiness.
Chanakya

O wise man! Give your wealth only to the worthy and never to others. The water of the sea received by the clouds is always sweet.
Chanakya

Once you start a working on something, don't be afraid of failure and don't abandon it. People who work sincerely are the happiest.
Chanakya

One whose knowledge is confined to books and whose wealth is in the possession of others, can use neither his knowledge nor wealth when the need for them arises.
Chanakya

Purity of speech, of the mind, of the senses, and of a compassionate heart are needed by one who desires to rise to the divine platform.
Chanakya

Test a servant while in the discharge of his duty, a relative in difficulty, a friend in adversity, and a wife in misfortune.
Chanakya

The biggest guru-mantra is: never share your secrets with anybody. It will destroy you.
Chanakya

The earth is supported by the power of truth; it is the power of truth that makes the sun shine and the winds blow; indeed all things rest upon truth.
Chanakya

The fragrance of flowers spreads only in the direction of the wind. But the goodness of a person spreads in all direction.
Chanakya

The happiness and peace attained by those satisfied by the nectar of spiritual tranquillity is not attained by greedy persons restlessly moving here and there.
Chanakya

The life of an uneducated man is as useless as the tail of a dog which neither covers its rear end, nor protects it from the bites of insects.
Chanakya

The one excellent thing that can be learned from a lion is that whatever a man intends doing should be done by him with a whole-hearted and strenuous effort.
Chanakya

The serpent, the king, the tiger, the stinging wasp, the small child, the dog owned by other people, and the fool: these seven ought not to be awakened from sleep.
Chanakya

The wise man should restrain his senses like the crane and accomplish his purpose with due knowledge of his place, time and ability.
Chanakya

The world's biggest power is the youth and beauty of a woman.
Chanakya

There is no austerity equal to a balanced mind, and there is no happiness equal to contentment; there is no disease like covetousness, and no virtue like mercy.
Chanakya

There is poison in the fang of the serpent, in the mouth of the fly and in the sting of a scorpion; but the wicked man is saturated with it.
Chanakya

There is some self-interest behind every friendship. There is no friendship without self-interests. This is a bitter truth.
Chanakya

Treat your kid like a darling for the first five years. For the next five years, scold them. By the time they turn sixteen, treat them like a friend. Your grown up children are your best friends.
Chanakya

We should not fret for what is past, nor should we be anxious about the future; men of discernment deal only with the present moment.
Chanakya

Whores don't live in company of poor men, citizens never support a weak company and birds don't build nests on a tree that doesn't bear fruits.
Chanakya

 

[advaita]

If only we were blessed with a series of such guys.

Think, the country made such people as much as such people made the country. I guess we will need some more time to produce such people.

 

[R.A.W.]

he was a genius of man.........
he wandered for so many years just find an efficient king when he knew he could have taken revenge any time.....
I like some of his quotes

"A person who cannot destroy the entire enemy with his allies opens his own doors for destruction"

"If you destroy for construction let be doomed... But it is construction what matters"

 

[advaita]

I agree with pretty much every one of the quotes attributed to him, with the exception of crap written in favour of brahministic caste system (as opposed to vedantic caste understanding) and also the crap belittling women.

Some quarters believe that the written stuff was only inspired by the minister and more then one brahmins compiled and extrapolated it.
Hindus had a long tradition of writing in the name of their inspiration and not mentioning there own names as authors. Some did it to float crap in the name of greats some as a dedication to the purpose at hand under the leadership of their inspired leader (whoever he may be).

 

[SalmanNadeem]

Unfortunately, Chanakya's words were long forgotten in India till recently.

 

[Peshwa]

Wow.....this is just a few of the guidelines that can help drive ones "relations"....whether it is about a country, person, relative.....its applicable in pretty much all situations....

Though many here criticize Chanakya......it is to be noted that he was the original "king maker" and master of diplomacy......
"Diplomacy is an art" and should not be taken for granted......

Friends, in today's Indian political system, is there any leader that can match the likes of Chanakya???

Pranab Mukherjee comes to mind for me......
From what I hear he is a shrewd and cunning little fellow with a "photographic memory" and a knack for being a "Mandvali king" (Mediatior)

Please share with me your views on who you think could be a "modern day Chanakya" and why.....

 

[advaita]

Wow.....this is just a few of the guidelines that can help drive ones "relations"....whether it is about a country, person, relative.....its applicable in pretty much all situations....
Though many here criticize Chanakya......it is to be noted that he was the original "king maker" and master of diplomacy......
"Diplomacy is an art" and should not be taken for granted......

Bro hope you dont consider me in the Chanakya haters. Cause I dont. My points were entirely different.

Friends, in today's Indian political system, is there any leader that can match the likes of Chanakya???

Pranab Mukherjee comes to mind for me......
From what I hear he is a shrewd and cunning little fellow with a "photographic memory" and a knack for being a "Mandvali king" (Mediatior)

Please share with me your views on who you think could be a "modern day Chanakya" and why.....

Come on you have to do better. Pranabda is just khursi ke khatir. Have you forgotten what happened after Indirajis assasination.

My pick would be Narasimha Rao. The guy was so shrewd that he got his minority sarkar for full 5 years. He also got India out of the mess of Licence Raj (almost single handedly fighting commies and Janta Dal types). All the while making preparations for the Nuke tests. And after all this he just handed over a note to Atalji saying 'Bomb is ready you can test'.

Though I guess we need a few more like him and in a continuity without break.

@SalmanNadeem : forgotten could be but more likely they were just absorbed from where they came. They came from Ancient traditions went into them again only to come out again when the time is ripe.
Remember you can never stop an Idea whose time has arrived.

 

[Peshwa]

Bro hope you dont consider me in the Chanakya haters. Cause I dont. My points were entirely different.



Come on you have to do better. Pranabda is just khursi ke khatir. Have you forgotten what happened after Indirajis assasination.

My pick would be Narasimha Rao. The guy was so shrewd that he got his minority sarkar for full 5 years. He also got India out of the mess of Licence Raj (almost single handedly fighting commies and Janta Dal types). All the while making preparations for the Nuke tests. And after all this he just handed over a note to Atalji saying 'Bomb is ready you can test'.

Though I guess we need a few more like him and in a continuity without break.

@SalmanNadeem : forgotten could be but more likely they were just absorbed from where they came. They came from Ancient traditions went into them again only to come out again when the time is ripe.
Remember you can never stop an Idea whose time has arrived.

Haha...Not at all, I think your post made it abundantly clear that you're a fan just like me....

Although Narsimha Rao is definitely a valid candidtate, my main reason for choosing Pranab is because of his mentorship to Sonia Gandhi....

Just as Chanakya mentored the young and inexpirienced Chandragupta into a fine soldier, politician and King inculcating in him, ideals of politics and diplomacy, Pranab was able to guide Sonia, essentially a foreigner who had no chance whatsoever of having any say in the Indian political system to become a Power magnate and showing her the ropes of becoming a true Queen......

Its very clear right now that an Italian born woman is the most powerful woman in India and a lot of credit goes to Pranabda

What are your views of Indira Gandhi.....she was a crafty politician as well!!!

 

[advaita]

Although Narsimha Rao is definitely a valid candidtate, my main reason for choosing Pranab is because of his mentorship to Sonia Gandhi....

What are your views of Indira Gandhi.....she was a crafty politician as well!!!

Idea of Chanakya is multidimensional. On account of the system set up by him Indians rose politically, economically, militarily and philosophically.

of this Rao and Indira managed two. I know you know which two we can agree on.

About what Pranabda is doing, such (mentoring - your view) and (sucking up to for manipulating patronage- my view) has been a long Congress tradition. Remember Yashpal Kapur and later R.K.Dhawan. Arjun Singh tried his hand too.

Indiraji was a definate joker in the pack. Strengths that she had at her disposal were stupendous while at the same time her weaknesses too banal/commonplace.

Sardar comes to mind.

Still what we really need is a series of such guys and and enabling environment for them.

 

[Hyde]

true this guy was a genius........ i am impressed with his strategies